How to Prevent the Next HIV

Evan Ratliff
04.24.07 | 2:00 AM

Illustration by Bryan Christie

Nathan Wolfe's global network begins in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (1), where hunters drop blood samples from their kills onto filter papers. Local researchers collect the papers and take samples of the hunters' own blood. Labs in each country catalog the blood, which is then shipped to one of four collection points: Montpellier, France; Baltimore; Atlanta; or Los Angeles (2). There it is analyzed for known viruses like HIV and Ebola. Depending on what kind of further analysis needs to be done, the blood is next sent to one of the other collection points or to additional labs around the world (3). At those labs, scientists try to find patterns indicating where the next pandemic might originate, how it could spread, and how it could be stopped. Some of the blood is also scanned for unknown and undiscovered viruses. Eventually, all the blood is archived at UCLA. Wolfe sees Cameroon as a prototype; he is establishing similar network nodes in other countries where disease could jump from animals to humans (4).